What if PEI disappeared on a holiday?

It’s a holiday Monday again, and, as usual, there’s no update to CBC Charlottetown’s website. Presumably there simply aren’t staff assigned to come in on holidays.

I still cannot fathom why things that happen on Sundays and holidays are deemed any less important than things that happen on weekdays.

Comments

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on September 4, 2001 - 12:06 Permalink

Has any news been missed? Is coverage from Halifax on PEI weekend stories incorrect? CBC PEI produces 27.5 hours of local news coverage in a full five day week between Canada Now, Island Morning and Matt Rainie not counting the half — hourly updates. Is there that much news in such a small community? I would be interested to know if there is a comparable community with that level of indigenous coverage. May concern is not so much that there is a quantity of news beyond which there is a problem but that the over abundence of coverage leads to a characterization of all items as equivalents and the news that can affect society or motivate opinion gets lost in a wash of the banal. For all the reporting here is not a lot of investigation or opinion. That’s one reason why this site, Acts of Volition and Kevin’s site are so popular — not news but at least some observation and opinion on PEI.

Steve Rukavina's picture
Steve Rukavina on September 4, 2001 - 14:38 Permalink

I’m kind of surprised that there would be no updates to the CBC PEI website over the long weekend. Although we tend to understaff the weeeknds here at CBC Saskatchewan as well, we do keep our website updated on a daily basis. While I can see Mr. Mcleod’s point of the danger of creating banal news stories that really aren’t important to fill space, I think that keeping a website current serves another function. More often than not, I would argue that people visit a news website to see if they’ve missed anything. If they can clearly see that the website has not been updated for three days, I believe they lose faith in that news organization to tell them if they’ve missed anything, even if nothing really happened. It’s not so much that the content has to be updated, but rather that people know that they can turn to the website in the event of a crisis or an important news story. I wouldn’t have much confidence in a news website that lies dormant for three days.

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on September 4, 2001 - 14:53 Permalink

True — and it is not just the CBC PEI website but the entire newsroom output — radio, web, TV.